Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra is to become Classic FM's Orchestra in the South of England.

The BSO is the UK's busiest Orchestra, with more than 140 performances each year across 35 venues in the South and South West of England.

Now the new partnership with Classic FM, which reaches more than 5.6million listeners each week, will extend Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra's world-class music-making to even wider audiences.

Dougie Scarfe, Chief Executive Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, said: “In our 120th consecutive year of music-making it is exciting to launch this new partnership with Classic FM and we are greatly looking forward to working together to inspire both our loyal supporters and build new audiences for the future.”

The partnership kicks off on Saturday 26 October with a new Classic FM/BSO series - Saturday Nights at Seven - at Bournemouth Pavilion.

The series includes six concerts there across the season, the first presented by Classic FM presenter Jamie Crick.

To celebrate the launch of the series, Classic FM will broadcast Jamie's programme from Bournemouth (3pm to 5pm) as well as the first concert, featuring Sibelius' Karelia Suite, the Mozart Clarinet Concerto and Tchaikovsky Symphony No.4 conducted by Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra's Young Conductor in Association Maxime Tortelier.

Sam Jackson, Managing Editor, Classic FM said: “We're delighted to launch this exciting new partnership with Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, an ensemble that shares our passion for bringing live music to as wide an audience as possible. We're thrilled that the BSO becomes our seventh partner orchestra.”

Don't miss BSO conductor Kirill Karabits' monthly column in our Saturday magazine.